Ranting Dragon’s Favorite Couple

Hey, look! Ranting Dragon’s Favorite is back! Our website has been a bit quiet these past months, what with most of our team members being busy doing other things and not having the time to really update the site. Most of us have caught up to life, though, and thus, we are diving into the realms of Speculative Fiction once more to dig out our favorite elements on a variety of subjects.

Love is all around us. It’s in the books we read and the films we watch. Sometimes, it’s even in the games we play. Speculative Fiction is no exception to this. Therefore, we will use this new edition of Ranting Dragon’s Favorite to look at some of our team’s favorite couples.

Malcolm Reynolds and Inara Serra from Joss Whedon’s Firefly are just two people in love, and stupid about it. Both too afraid of being hurt to let their feelings show to the other, they’re nonetheless obvious to everyone else. Such things are often merely annoying, but with Mal and Inara, it’s actually rather adorable, though still frustrating.

“I love you.” “I know.” That exchange from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is probably one of the best known quotes in the history of film. It marks a turning point in one of the most amazing relationships ever. Everything that followed this great moment, from The Return of the Jedi to numerous expanded universe books and comics, depicts what I think is the best fictive couple ever. Fortunately, Han has always remained a scoundrel.

Throughout Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold the most successful and dedicated relationship would have to be that between the ex-convict Friendly and his dice. Completely infatuated by the dice and the numbers they display, he cannot stop thinking about them—that’s true love for you. He never leaves the dice for a moment and without them he would be lost and bereft. Let’s not even get into the physical stuff. Furthermore, Friendly is willing to kill dozens of men, with little more than his bare hands, in defense of their honor. No one insults his beloved and lives.

The Old Republic era of the Star Wars franchise is my absolute favorite, and it contains one of my most favorite couples ever. Originally introduced in the video game Knights of the Old Republic from BioWare, Revan was a Jedi-turned-Sith-Lord when a strike team of Jedi which included Bastila captured him and wiped his mind and personality. This is the premise of the first KOTOR game, and Bastila becomes one of the romance options for a male Revan. With the release of Drew Karpyshyn’s novel The Old Republic: Revan, this pairing became truly canon, and gave me much glee while reading.

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Who is your favorite couple? Let us know in the comments below, or on the forums!

About Stephan van Velzen

A 29 year-old Communications student, Stephan loves publicity and design, particularly web design. When he’s not designing websites, he’s busy being a total geek for fantasy. In The Ranting Dragon, he has found a way to combine these passions and discover a new love for writing too. Most of all, though, Stephan is just a crazy Dutch guy who enjoys doing things that people don’t expect.

2 comments

I don’t watch many movies so my favorite couples come from books: Patricia Briggs writes them best, I love the characters in When Demons Walk and in the Alpha and Omega series. Ilona Andrews has a pretty darn excellent couple in The Edge, although that series doesn’t continue with them as the focus, so I had to rate it just behind the Briggs couple.